Disneyland Half -- Part 1 -- Only the Good Stuff

Well, mostly only the good stuff.  First off score is:  Mickey 1 – Tricia 0

Damed rat. 

Well, let me first say I PR’d so that is cool, just barely, but I did. 

Apparently my body didn’t realize we were racing today.  I really thought I’d told it.  Silly me.  Still not entirely sure what happened – it was a bit baffling but I’ve got some ideas which I’ll go over below.  But first the good stuff. 

Like I said, I did PR.  1.58.33 (previous PR was 1.59.02 – so you can see I almost didn’t even pull that out of my hat – oh wait – only the good stuff right now).

Disney does know how to put on a race from expo to end.  The expo was fun though I didn’t buy much – I always  feel like I want to and then get overwhelmed and can’t decide on anything.  But that’s just me.  Bib pick up was pure Disney style – the whole set up on how they wind you down to the specific area where everything is located. I was late enough in the day that there was no wait at all so it went smoothly and I was up at the expo in no time. 

The race was great really.  From the very beginning, it was well organized.  I’ve got to give credit to both Disney and the RNR folks – those people know how to start 15000 person race and make it work.  The corral system is spot on so while it was crowded at the start it wasn’t a problem as we were all going the same speed.  

I enjoyed running through the park way more than I thought I would.  They have all the characters off to the sides so if you want pics, you get them, otherwise you just run.  But it was fun to see them along with a lot of the floats from the parade with the characters singing and dancing.  We also got to run back state – so cool to see the behind the scenes.  All the Disney workers were wonderful, everything was super well marked and they even had the Disney man voice warn you when sharp turns were coming up or when the course narrowed (they even did this outside the park – it was actually very awesome!).

 The race got a little boring out on the streets but there were bands occasionally – I’d had my ipod on during this part of the run. 

Another highlight was running through Angel Stadium – it was actually pretty darned cool.  You come up into the field through one of those tunnel thingies and then poof, you are on the dirt in the stadium.   This was about mile 9 and I was just about used up (oops no bad stuff yet) but it was just plain cool.  Then you see all the runners on the jumbo tron (?? The screen,  isn’t that what they call it?).  And they’ve got some high school bands and cheerleaders and others in the stadium and everyone is screaming like crazy.  As I rounded the last turn in the stadium I finally saw the camera so I looked up on the screen and there I was!  It is the small things but I love that sort of stuff. 

The rest of the way in was just tough but that was me – and then when we got back to the Disney property it seemed to take forever to get to the finish but it was there and thank the gods I was done. 

Would I do it again? Heck yeah!  But only with friends – that’s a run more fun with a group – I was a bit lonely.  Would I do another Disney run? I’m sure I would.  I don’t know if I’d put Disney runs on my bucket lists, but if the times worked out and it was convenient, I’d do another one. 

(I wrote this yesterday, Sunday, after the race but didn’t get a chance to upload it. It is long all by itself so I’ll leave it and then do a post later on what went wrong – I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it (that’s what a 5.5 hour drive home will do for you) and I want to clarify my thoughts because honestly, I was bummed.  But all it good!  I’ve decided to run San Jose RNR in 4 weeks and already have the training outlined in my head.  So smiles all around ! )